Nothing grows knowledge like experience. So the best way to figure out how to design a continent-crossing motorcycle, is to actually cross a continent?then see what works, and what doesn’t.
Back in 2016, Matias Corea rode his 1985 BMW R80G/S Paris Dakar from Brooklyn all the way to Ushuaia, in Argentina. Now he’s got another trip planned: a 22,000-mile journey from his native Barcelona to Cape Town in South Africa. So he’s taken the lessons from his first trip, and built his vision of the ultimate adventure airhead.

?After 20,000 miles in 168 days, you get a clear idea of what the bike is capable of and its limitations,? he says. ?This build is based on everything I learned on that trip. By the end, I had mapped out everything I wanted to change to be able to tour the world with an airhead.? With too much reverence to modify his original G/S, Matias started with its close cousin: the 1983 BMW R80ST. The Brooklyn-based designer’s main focus was on making sensible upgrades, and building a reliable and easy-to-work-on bike.

?Every element on the bike was vetted in regards to how easy it would be to repair or replace anywhere in Africa,? he says. ?That mindset changed my perspective on what is a cool choice and what is a good choice.?
Matias went deep in his pursuit for perfection, starting with an engine capacity bump to 1,001 cc. The heads went off to Moorespeed in Northampton, UK, to be ported, gas-flowed, and modified to run oversized inlet and...